Bill and Barbara very kindly offered to babysit the girls during lunch/nap on the Friday of their visit, which gave me the opportunity to (finally!) join Brad for Friday lunch! Dumbarton allows fellows to have spouses/partners join as lunch guests on Fridays, but we hadn't ever been able to work it out because of childcare. I was SUPER excited to get to participate in the Wonder that is Dumbarton Lunch.
Y'all. It's gourmet and unbelievably delicious. Brad wasn't kidding. We started a habit early on in the semester when he got home for the day where we would ask him how many words he was able to write that day + what did he have for lunch. It made me feel just the tiniest bit inferior when he had braised blah blah with julienned whatnot with such and such aioli...and then I served him spaghetti and (Costco) meatballs. I'm sorry, but I can't actually compare to a chef who gets fresh veggies from the garden out back. Bless us.
It was so fun to meet his colleagues and chat with scholars from around the country and world (at our table: Australia, the Bronx, France, Italy, and Iowa). I ate all of my food, bites of Brad's, and then we got a few things from the Den of Sin, where they keep all the dessert.
The dessert plates were absolutely too small to hold all the samples I needed.
After lunch, we went for a walk around the gardens (again), which was necessary to counteract all the food.
It was really fun to be in DC over the course of 3 seasons; the gardens were slightly different every time I visited.
Amanda joined us for Friday night pizza night, which meant we got to introduce her to Bill and Barbara (we had already invited her to join us all for Thanksgiving, so she got a jump on meeting the fam). She and I also got what I think is the only picture of the two of us:
She was so used to seeing me with more "mom" clothes and a ponytail, that I think it threw her off to see me looking a little more put together! Sometimes I actually try.
No comments:
Post a Comment